The present invention relates to a portable mini silo system for delivering dry mortar blends to batch mixers at a construction site.
It is well known that there are a number of techniques which have been employed for delivering and/or preparing mortar products at a construction site. Such mortar products include conventional concrete-type mixes, brick and mason mortar mixes and various types of grout mixes.
For concrete-type applications, concrete trucks are typically employed. Thus, the concrete-type mortar product is prepared off site and is delivered by the concrete truck to the construction site. The concrete-type mix is discharged by using various telescoping or expanding chutes, associated with the concrete truck, for delivering the concrete-type mix. Such off-site preparation has been generally used for concrete-type products.
For brick and mason mortar-type products and grout mixes, the mortar product has been typically prepared at the job site. In such instances, a batch mixer is employed for mixing mortar blend materials with water to produce the desired mortar product. Such batch mixers are either of the typical paddle wheel or rotary drum batch mixer type or a continuous batch mixer using a rotatable screw or auger member. In either case, the mortar blend and water is mixed and then discharged from the batch mixing apparatus for use.
Typically, desired proportions of the mortar blend must be hand loaded into either type of mixer. As will be appreciated, not only is such hand loading labor intensive, but the mortar product produced varies from batch to batch since there is no accurate way of insuring preparation of the specific type of mortar product desired.
Recently, there have been several developments which have sought to eliminate the myriad of problems associated with construction site preparation of mortar products. One system employs a portable ready-mix plant for preparing the desired mortar product at the construction site. Another system employs a mobile concrete dispenser which comprises a complete concrete truck type transportation, proportioning and mixing system for preparing the desired mortar product. A third system includes a portable silo system, containing the desired dry mortar blends, which is then transported to a job site and then selectively discharged for mixture with water to provide the desired mortar product. Still another system, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,821, employs a silo that is loaded with a dry mortar blend product at the construction site for a discharge into a batch mixer in preparing the desired mortar product. All of the aforementioned systems are disclosed in aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,821.
The present invention is generally of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,821 where a silo is individually charged at the construction site with a dry mortar blend mixture for subsequent selective discharge into a batch mixer in preparing the desired mortar product.